The Cockrell Enovation Blog

What Are Print-Ready Files?

When creating print ready files there are a few different factors to consider. If you don’t have prior knowledge of print production, navigating this realm can prove itself to be quite challenging. Priding ourselves on making print simple, we want to make sure we are properly supporting our customers with accurate and helpful information regarding their printing experience with us. A large portion of that involves the files we are printing.

Bleed

Always make sure that there is at least an 1/8” bleed of image, color, etc. all the way around the artwork to ensure all of the important bits show up on the final version of your product.

High Resolution Images

The higher the resolution, the better. This ensures a clear and crisp image when printing and gives your final product that much more pizzazz!

Vector Artwork

Sending native files (original design files) is the best route for ensuring high resolution. This is especially important if you want our design and prepress team to make any changes to your artwork before printing.

Colors

Providing us with specific PMS (Pantone Matching System) colors helps us to accurately match the colors you are wanting in your printed piece and maintain brand consistency.

Packaged Files

Packaging your files is a fail-safe way to ensure the files you send us have everything we need. An easy way to do this is by going into your Ai. file and clicking File > Package. From here, you can select the various components you would like included in your new packaged folder. You can also manually create this folder if you are not working from Illustrator. The things you want included are: